SITA Moves To Assure Government And The Public Of Business Continuity Amidst The Industrial Action

The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) would like to inform its customers and the members of the public that all ICT services the agency renders to government have not been disrupted. This is in spite of the industrial action that members of the Public Servants Association (PSA) have embarked on at SITA this week. The PSA served SITA with a strike notice on 07 October 2023 and the two parties have been in wage negotiations for the current financial year (2023/2024). The locus of attention is on averting further escalation of the situation to avoid possible impact on government service delivery and convenience of services to members of the public.

SITA and the PSA are meeting today at the bargaining forum, to again to have discussions on matters that must break the deadlock and terminate the strike. We are hopeful the today’s meeting, will bring result in a breakthrough.

“As part of the implementation of our contingency plans, we have placed special monitoring systems across all of our critical service delivery areas on to ensure business continuity to government. To date, no government services that rely on ICT rendered by SITA have been compromised,” said Tlali Tlali, SITA’s Head of Corporate Affairs.

The industrial action at SITA is unprecedented, especially given the nature of essential ICT services the agency renders to government. Our ICT enabled services are important and form the backbone of government’s ICT work. These services include the provisioning of ICT infrastructure to enable network connectivity, hosting services, applications development, maintenance and consulting. These services are provided at various national and provincial government departments to render services to the public in line with their respective mandates.The SITA leadership will spare no effort in working towards resolving the impasse and finding a lasting solution on the disputed issues, noting that company appreciates the nature of the relationship it has developed and enjoyed with PSA over time, which is characterised by mutual respect and shared vision on delivery of services to government.

Throughout these negotiations there have been improvements on the offer in an effort to break the deadlock, of which the last offer, earlier this week was a 5% salary increase to all employees represented in the bargaining forum. The PSA rejected the improved offer tabled by the employer during the meeting on Monday, 16 October 2023.

SITA is satisfied that the negotiations were conducted in good faith with the union and that throughout the negotiations SITA exercised flexibility and rationality in its approach. The basis for the improved final offer was explained to the union and all employees – that it is a balancing act to cater for the demands of the employees on the one hand, and the vision of building SITA and improving its infrastructure, to ensure new forms of service delivery and continued organizational economic growth.

“For its part, SITA remains open to continue to engage with PSA to work towards finding a lasting solution that will safeguard all our interests,” Tlali concluded.